


Three Chances

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 10:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17222261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: David gets Jack a gift.





	Three Chances

David had that look on his face that meant he was chewing the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning. As he handed Jack the brown wrapped present, the smile was there in his eyes, even though he tried to keep the rest of his face solemn. 

“Since when do I get a gift for your birthday?” Jack teased. He wrapped on arm around David’s shoulder.

“When we were kids, I always used to get one gift on Les and Sarah’s birthdays, and they got the same on mine. Guess my parents didn’t want any of us to feel left out.” 

“The guy who invites me into his house for free cake talks about me feeling left out.” Jack looked down at his gift so that he wouldn’t have to meet David’s gaze. The truth was, he’d never felt included in much before he’d met the Jacobs family. In the last two years he’d been to birthdays, graduations, Thanksgiving dinners, and Hanukkah parties. Mrs. Jacobs had knit him a scarf, and David had jokingly replaced his own name with Jack’s on the family chore wheel after Jack offered to do the dishes one night. 

“The gift’s more for me than you anyway.” David nudged Jack’s shoulders to break him out of his thoughts. "I’ll give you three guesses what it is.“

“A book. It’s all square, and kinda floppy. Hey, I can even feel the pages.” Jack pressed his fingers into the side of the gift.

“That’s too unspecific to count,” said David, as if getting a hand wrapped book was something that happened all the time. "What kind of book is it?“

"It’s a David book,” Jack ran his hand up through David’s hair. That won him a laugh.

“What exactly is a ‘David Book’?” 

“Like a book about history and remembering to wear clean socks or something. And politics.” 

“It’s a Jack book,” David told him, “about doing wild and reckless things that we probably shouldn’t.”

“Like starting strikes? 'Cause if I remember correctly…”

David gave Jack a good shove. "Just open it.“ 

Jack didn’t need a second invitation. As nice as just sitting and talking with David was, he’d been itching to open up his gift since he’d gotten it. He tore open the paper, and let it scatter on the floor next to him. Inside was a secondhand guidebook, for visitors to Santa Fe. He held onto it, with a quickly faltering surge of joy. 

"You still think maybe I’ll get there someday?” goodness knew Jack had been trying, but there had been one setback after another, and then his relationship with David had become this big, all consuming thing before he’d had time to think about or control it. With every day that passed it seemed deserts and wild plains of Santa Fe got pushed further and further away. 

“I was thinking…” David said haltingly. "Scratch that - my parents were just thinking I ought to travel this spring break, just for a little while. They think I’m becoming too much of a city kid, and nineteen is about time to see something else. You’d be doing me a favor if…“ 

Jack laughed and hugged David. "I’m calling bullshit. You’re trying to give me something without me feeling like you’re giving me something, and it ain’t working.” 

“Yeah, but are you going to come, or what? I’m not lying when I say I want to go somewhere with you.”

“I oughta think about it.” Jack ran his fingers over the book’s well worn spine. 

“Now,” David whispered, close to Jack’s ear, “is not the time to start thinking things over for the first time in your life. Let’s just go an be happy about it.” 

Jack laughed again. It wasn’t like he had any fight in him anyway, not when it came to this. "I’ll pay you back for it.“


End file.
